New suit alleges additional corruption by ex-Schaumburg officers

Even after three Schaumburg police officers were arrested in January on charges they shook down drug dealers, Jordan Miller said he was too afraid to come forward with his own tale of alleged corruption.

But the former northwest suburban man said he could no longer remain silent after federal drug agents and prosecutors tracked him down last month to ask why two rifles registered in his name where found in two of the officers’ homes.

In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Miller alleges two of the men improperly raided his home and threatened and harassed his family in a pattern of illegal conduct that included his false arrest.

Miller, 29, who has a criminal record, filed the suit against the village and former officers Terrance O’Brien and Matthew Hudak. He does not name the third man charged, John Cichy, who did not join the police department’s special operations unit until one year ago.

The lawsuit was the third filed since the officers’ arrest on drug conspiracy charges six weeks ago. The three men have resigned. Village officials declined to comment on the suit.

If proved true, its claims would extend the timeline of the alleged crimes from nine months back to early 2010, when Miller said O’Brien recruited him as an informant.

Miller told the Tribune he worked for O’Brien for several months. He alleges O’Brien began skimming drugs, planting evidence and directing him to give false information to a judge to obtain search warrants.

Miller claims he later tried to sever ties, but O’Brien retaliated and had him arrested for impersonating a police officer even though he was following the officer’s orders.

Miller also accuses O’Brien and Hudak of stealing $8,500 cash, paperwork documenting his undercover work, and two of his rifles during an illegal raid of his Hanover Park home in May 2010.

He said authorities contacted him last month after tracking the rifles back to him. A written agreement with prosecutors obtained by the Tribune shows they wanted him to testify before a grand jury. Miller said he has provided that testimony.

“It is only now that I feel I am able to safely tell my story and make the attempt to have so many of these wrongs, made right,” he said in his lawsuit.

Miller declined to reveal where he lives out of fear of retaliation. His criminal history includes convictions for impersonating a police officer and unlawfully obtaining a prescription with a forged document, court records showed.

The ex-officers have pleaded not guilty and are free on bond.

Prosecutors have dismissed drug charges against about two dozen people in Cook, DuPage and Kane counties in cases in which the former officers had been involved.